There’s a nanosecond or less before the relationship of consciousness and the senses manufactures an identification such as blue, sky, bird, “I” or “I want.” Before thinking, labeling, or ascribing take place, there is nothing: a neutral, lucid blankness. It’s so brief as to not be registered.
As a result, the power of that nanosecond, its clarity and perfection, is also not experienced. Instead, due to the habits of eye consciousness, ear consciousness, taste or touch consciousness plus the robotic tendency of identifying, naming, and then clutching at an idea or sensed reality, openness collapses and thing is constructed in our mind. Meditation practice wants to undo the robotic manner we are mentally-emotionally used to and allow the present to be noticed: raw, unlabeled, naked, pure.
